Hand hygiene (such as hand washing) is a simple but highly effective method for controlling the spread of infectious diseases in a health care setting, in food preparation settings, as well as any area (public or private) where multiple persons access a common restroom or have physical contact with common tools, equipment etc. Compliance by individuals, despite the prolific use of warning signs and admonitions from authorities or peers has always been problematic. Current automated compliance systems rely on identification means such as RFID tags in hospital employee identification badges (including bracelets, etc.) or other portable wireless identification devices for tracking. The use of removable employee identification which incorporates RFID tags or other wireless identification devices has a limitation in that the identification device can be removed (misplaced, left with other clothes, left in the car, used by a different person, etc.) Notably, in hospitals, convincing visitors to wash their hands has had very limited success due to the implication that the hospital must be unclean. Current RFID-based, automated compliance systems used in hospitals do not effectively address the issue of visitors and hand hygiene such as hand washing.